Danish university awards COBOD tender for BOD2 construction 3D printer

Construction 3D printing startup COBOD International has been building a solid reputation for itself since it was founded as a spin-off of 3D Printhuset last September. Following a series of announcements, including the first EU tender for a construction 3D printer and new distributors for its BOD2 construction 3D printer, COBOD has announced the receipt of its second European tender.

The Danish construction 3D printing company was selected for the tender from a number of other 3D construction printer suppliers from The Netherlands, France and elsewhere. COBOD’s technology was chosen by the Danish technical university DTU for its Ballerup Campus, which will leverage the gantry-based system equipment to build structures, train students and explore new construction 3D printing materials.

“With our printers, entire buildings can be 3D printed, and not just small single elements,” said COBOD CEO Henrik Lund-Nielsen. “Most customers are interested in doing complete buildings and they are clearly appreciating the much larger prints that can be made with gantry-based printers than with robotic arm printers and non-gantry-based systems.”

COBOD’s BOD2 3D printer has a large and modular build capacity consisting of a number of modules each measuring 2.5 meters for the width, length and the height of the printer. The 3D printer deployed to Belgian Kamp C for its EU tender measured 10 x 10 x 10 meters, while the configuration to be sent to DTU will be a 5-4-2 setup capable of printing structures up to 12 x 10 x 4 meters.

“It was important to us that we got as versatile and large a printer as possible and we found that in COBOD’s solution,” said Jakob Lemming Christensen, Section Manager at DTU. In addition to its build capacity, COBOD’s AM platform was also chosen by DTU for its user-friendly, open source software, which enables easy printer operation and slicing features.

As Christensen elaborated: “For DTU, it is key that the software is easy to understand, such that we can expect that after basic training our students will be capable of running the printer by themselves. Also the possibility to use any type of concrete and mortar on the printer was determining, as we want to experiment a lot with new recipes. We are therefore thrilled that this seems to be the case for the COBOD printer, where the software is open source, which gives both students and staff a lot of possibilities.”

COBOD will continue to work in cooperation with DTU as it installs and uses its BOD2 platform. The partners will strive for the shared goal of advancing construction 3D printing and overcoming challenges that still exist in the field.

“For an educational institution, it is obviously crucial that the exchange of ideas runs smoothly with the supplier and that the communication is straight forward and open such that a good collaboration is established,” Christensen concluded. “COBOD seems truly interested in the same, so we look forward to an intensive collaboration, where new ideas and concepts will be developed and tested to create new knowledge.”